http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
LAST week, the high priest and court jester of
liberalism raised their moral voices, in the process demonstrating once
again that there's no longer any shame in our public life.

Prior to China's decision to free the crew of our spy plane, the Rev.
Jesse Jackson - the shakedown artist who fathered a child out of
wedlock - offered to negotiate with Beijing. Touting his past success
in springing Americans from Third World dungeons, the minister
observed: "In each instance, we had to make a moral appeal.''

That's right, Elmer Gantry's understudy actually used the m-word.

What Jackson should have said was: Just as it takes a thief to catch
a thief, who better to deal with extortionists than another con man.

Cut to New York City, where Woody Allen was kvetching about Mayor
Rudy Giuliani's oversight commission for publicly funded art. It's "so
silly that it's laughable. It's so beneath him (Giuliani) as an intellectual
and first-class kind of politician and thinker,'' Allen whined.

The city's elite are fuming about Giuliani's efforts to exert a degree of
control over municipal funding of institutions like the Brooklyn Museum
of Art. In 1999, the museum showed the painting "The Holy Virgin
Mary,'' adorned with pictures of female genitalia and elephant dung.
This year's equally dubious display was "Yo Mama's Last Supper.''

One can see how Allen, who once took nude pictures of his
then-lover Soon-Yi Previn in erotic poses, would leap to the defense
of questionable art.

Still, you'd think the director would be reluctant to inject himself into
a controversy with an ethical dimension - i.e., is it right to force
taxpayers to subsidize pornographic/sacrilegious displays?

Allen's venture into a new art form, which caused a sensation in
1992, involved a woman barely out of her teens, the adopted
daughter of ex-girlfriend Mia Farrow. Woody, who knew Soon-Yi (now
his wife) since she was 8 years old, was a surrogate father in all but
name. That didn't stop him from seducing her.

In her autobiography, Farrow says that when she found out about the
seduction, she screamed at Allen: "You're meant to do the right
thing. You're not supposed to ---- the kids.'' Most of us could have
figured that one out.

By comparison, Jackson is merely a run-of-the-mill fornicator. "Many
consider the Baptist minister a voice of moral authority for young
African-Americans,'' USA Today commented when the story broke
about his love-child.

Jackson's sins aren't confined to the flesh. Investigative reports in
The Chicago Sun-Times uncovered a web of political pressure and
financial dealings amounting to extortion.

For decades, Jackson's modus operandi consisted of launching
campaigns against corporations, which then were encouraged to buy
him off with "contributions'' to his organizations or by sending
business to one of his associates.

Jackson and his wife are part-owners of an enterprise thus favored.
Due to one of these payoffs, the value of their interest went from
$10,000 to $1.2 million. And this man wanted to "make a moral
appeal'' to the Chinese communists!

Allen and Jackson are products of their age. We have even lost the
ability to discuss moral questions seriously - as evidenced by the
mantra that there's no connection between private conduct and the
capacity for leadership.

We live in a land where an actor who's repeatedly arrested for
hard-core drug use is celebrated by his colleagues, a leader who
admitted to adultery and perjury is lauded by his vice president as
"one of our greatest presidents,'' and a former football star who
literally got away with double-murder has legions of defenders.

Rather than retreating to the undersides of rocks, where they
properly belong, celebrity degenerates hold their heads high while
they lecture us on ethical questions and offer to make moral appeals
in our behalf. This chutzpah goes largely unchallenged, as people
shrug and say: Who am I to pass
judgment?

JWR contributing columnist Don Feder's latest books are Who is afraid of the Religious Right? ($15.95) and A Jewish conservative looks at pagan America ($9.95). To receive an autographed copy, send a check or money order to: Don Feder, The Boston Herald, 1 Herald Sq., Boston, Mass. 02106. Doing so will help fund JWR, if so noted. He is also available as a guest speaker. To comment on this column please click here.